The choice to switch from POV in the remake of 'Maniac'Good question. I don't see any harm in adding dates to tags, in fact it might be useful when separating remakes/reboots (ie Robocop). I specifically added it here though, as the 1980 version is not shot in POV whereas the 2012 is, and I wanted to make that distinction (even though it is noted in my introduction).

What determines when a book will be split into multiple films?As much as I'd love to say these decisions are driven by artistic vision, it probably all boils down to the mighty $$$. Movie making is a business, the suits aren't looking to entertain you, they need to see a decent return for their investments. The Hobbit is a prime example of two potentially amazing films being turned into three bloated chores, not because Jackson thought it was the best way to do it, but because New Line wanted another mega-trilogy. (All highly opinionated BTW, which is why I didn't put this as an answer :))

Amazing makeup effect in CocoonThat said - in an effort to answer this, even though some basic CGI was used in the film for 'glowing' effects and such, the prosthetics were handled by Greg Cannom, who was at the time a contemporary of Rick Baker and Rob Bottin, and responsible for some amazing FX in the 80s and 90s, so I wouldn't put that gag past his skill range. Can you find a video of the moment so that we can inspect it?

What is a seamless cross-cutting transition called?I think this wiki entry is wrong. I was always taught that a match cut is an edit where an action continues seamlessly through an edit - for example, a person goes to pick up a bottle in a medium shot, cut to a close-up of the person's hand grabbing the bottle. The action is seamless, and referred to a match cut. It's the same for a character walking into camera and then away in two shots, with the rhythm and pacing unaffected by the cut.